She has had the distinction of appearing in two Broadway landmarks: one of its greatest hits, the highly acclaimed, long-running A Chorus Line, and, as a teenager, in one of its biggest flops, the infamous musical version of Breakfast at Tiffany's, which closed before opening night.
Had Tiffany's survived, it would have marked her debut on Broadway, but the production was plagued with so many problems that its creative team deemed it impossible to fix.
[citation needed] A Chorus Line (1975) had Lopez portraying Diana Morales, a character patterned after herself.
[2] In A Day in Hollywood / A Night in the Ukraine (1980), Lopez stepped out of the ensemble and into the spotlight, displaying her comedic and vocal skills.
Both she and the show received rave reviews; it ran nearly a year-and-a-half, and she earned a Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical.
Her off-Broadway credits include Other People's Money, Key Exchange, Extremities, The Oldest Profession, Beauty of the Father and Class Mother '68, for which she was nominated for a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Solo Performance.
[3] Lopez starred as a liberal nun in an unsuccessful Norman Lear series In the Beginning with McLean Stevenson in 1978.